China tried to meddle but Canadians decided last 2 elections, Trudeau tells inquiry
- Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified at an inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian elections
- Beijing has denied allegations of meddling in Canadian affairs, and said it had no interest in doing so
China tried to meddle in the last two Canadian elections but the results were not impacted and it was “improbable” Beijing preferred any one party over another, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an official probe on Wednesday.
In sworn testimony before a commission conducting a public inquiry into alleged foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections, Trudeau answered questions about intelligence briefings he had received and asserted the elections were “free and fair”.
Trudeau set up the commission last year under pressure from opposition legislators unhappy about media reports on China’s possible role in the elections.
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“Nothing we have seen and heard despite, yes, attempts by foreign states to interfere, those elections held in their integrity. They were decided by Canadians,” he said.
Asked about an intelligence report about Chinese officials in Canada expressing a preference in 2021 for a Liberal minority government due to the perception that minority governments would be more limited in enacting anti-China policies, Trudeau said the report had not reached him.
